BL 

£725 

.A3 

1894 



Class j_ 

Book 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



About 
The Holy Bible. 



A LECTURE 



BY 



Robert G. Ingersoll 



In the nature of things there can be no evidence to establish the 
claim of inspiration. 



New York, N. Y. : H G ? 



C. P. FARRELL, PUBLISHER. 
1894. 




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1894, 
By ROBERT G. INGERSOLI,, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



(All Rights Reserved.) 



C. G. BURGOYNE, 146 CENTRE ST., N. Y. 



CONTENTS. 



About the Holy Bible — Introductory, 5 

The Origin of the Bible, 7 

Is the Old Testament Inspired? - - - 11 

The Ten Commandments, - " 17 

What is it all worth? ------ 23 

Was Jehovah a God of IyOVE? - - - 37 

Jehovah's Administration, ----- 39 

The New Testament, - - - - 42 

The Philosophy of Christ, - - - - 55 

Is Christ our Example? - 60 

Why should we place Christ at the Top and 

Summit of the Human Race? 62 

Inspiration, 66 

The Real Bible, ------- 72 



ABOUT 



THE HOLY BIBLE. 



HERE are many millions of people who believe 



the Bible to be the inspired word of God — 
millions who think that this book is staff and gnide, 
counselor and consoler; that it fills the present with 
peace and the future with hope — millions who believe 
that it is the fountain of law, justice and mercy, and 
that to its wise and benign teachings the world is 
indebted for its liberty, wealth and civilization — 
millions who imagine that this book is a revelation 
from the wisdom and love of God to the brain and 
heart of man — millions who regard this book as a 
torch that conquers the darkness of death, and pours 
its radiance on another world — a world without a tear. 

They forget its ignorance and savagery, its hatred 
of liberty, its religious persecution; they remember 
heaven, but they forget the dungeon of eternal pain. 




ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



7 



I. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE BIBLE. 
FEW wandering families — poor, wretched ; with- 



■^-^ ont education, art or power; descendants of 
those who had been enslaved for four hundred years ; 
ignorant as the inhabitants of Central Africa — had 
just escaped from their masters to the desert of Sinai. 

Their leader was Moses, a man who had been 
raised in the family of Pharaoh, and had been 
taught the law and mythology of Egypt. For the 
purpose of controlling his followers he pretended 
that he was instructed and assisted by Jehovah, the 
god of these wanderers. 

Everything that happened was attributed to the 
interference of this god. Moses declared that he 
met this god face to face; that on Sinai's top from 
the hands of this god he had received the tables of 
stone on which, by the finger of this god, the Ten 
Commandments had been written, and that, in 
addition to this, Jehovah had made known the 
sacrifices and ceremonies that were pleasing to him 
and the laws by which the people should be 
governed. 




8 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



In this way the Jewish religion and the Mosaic 
Code were established. 

It is now claimed that this religion and these laws 
were and are revealed and established for all man- 
kind. 

At that time these wanderers had no commerce 
with other nations— they had no written language — 
they could neither read nor write. They had no 
means by which they could make this revelation 
known to other nations, and so it remained buried 
in the jargon of a few ignorant, impoverished and 
unknown tribes for more than two thousand years. 

Many centuries after Moses, the leader, was dead — 
many centuries after all his followers had passed 
away — -the Pentateuch was written, the work of many 
writers, and to give it force and authority it was 
claimed that Moses was the author. 

We now know that the Pentateuch was not written 
by Moses. 

Towns are mentioned that were not in existence 
when Moses lived. 

Money, not coined until centuries after his death, 
is mentioned. 

So, many of the laws were not applicable to 
wanderers on the desert — laws about agriculture, 
about the sacrifice of oxen, sheep and doves, about 



AB0U1 THE HOLY BIBLE. 



9 



the weaving of cloth, about ornaments of gold and 
silver, about the cultivation of land, about harvest, 
about the threshing of grain, about houses and 
temples, about cities of refuge, and about many other 
subjects of no possible application to a few starving 
wanderers over the sands and rocks. 

It is now not only admitted by intelligent and 
honest theologians that Moses was not the author of 
the Pentateuch, but they all admit that no one 
knows who the authors were, or who wrote any one 
of these books, or a chapter or a line. We know that 
the books were not written in the same generation ; 
that they were not all written by one person ; that 
they are filled with mistakes and contradictions. 

It is also admitted that Joshua did not write the 
book that bears his name, because it refers to events 
that did not happen until long after his death. 

No one knows, or pretends to know, the author of 
Judges ; all we know is that it was written centuries 
after all the judges had ceased to exist. No one 
knows the author of Ruth, nor of First and Second 
Samuel ; all we know is that Samuel did not write 
the books that bear his name. In the 2 5th chapter 
of First Samuel is an account of Samuel's death, and 
in the 27th chapter is an account of the raising of 
Samuel by the Witch of Endor. 



10 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



No one knows the author of First and Second 
Kings or First and Second Chronicles ; all we know 
is that these books are of no value. 

We know that the Psalms were not written by 
David. In the Psalms the Captivity is spoken of, 
and that did not happen until about five hundred 
years after David slept with his fathers. 

We know that Solomon did not write the Proverbs 
or the Song ; that Isaiah was not the author of the 
book that bears his name; that no one knows the 
author of Job, Ecclesiastes or Esther, or of any book 
in the Old Testament, with the exception of Ezra. 

We know that God is not mentioned or in any 
way referred to in the book of Esther. We know, 
too, that the book is cruel, absurd and impossible. 

God is not mentioned in the Song of Solomon, the 
best book in the Old Testament. 

And we know that Ecclesiastes was written by an 
unbeliever. 

We know, too, that the Jews themselves had not 
decided as to what books were inspired — were 
authentic — until the second century after Christ. 

We know that the idea of inspiration was of slow 
growth, and that the inspiration was determined by 
those who had certain ends to accomplish. 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



ii 



II. 

IS THE OLD TESTAMENT INSPIRED? 

TF it is, it should be a book that no man — no num- 
ber of men — could produce. 

It should contain the perfection of philosophy. 

It should perfectly accord with every fact in nature. 

There should be no mistakes in astronomy, 
geology, or as to any subject or science. 

Its morality should be the highest, the purest. 

Its laws and regulations for the control of conduct 
should be just, wise, perfect, and perfectly adapted to 
the accomplishment of the ends desired. 

It should contain nothing calculated to make man 
cruel, revengeful, vindictive or infamous. 

It should be filled with intelligence, justice, purity, 
honesty, mercy and the spirit of liberty. 
, It should be opposed to strife and war, to slavery 
and lust, to ignorance, credulity and superstition. 

It should develop the brain and civilize the heart. 

It should satisfy the heart and brain of the best 
and wisest. 

It should be true. 

Does the Old Testament satisfy this standard ? 



12 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



Is there anything in the Old Testament — in 
history, in theory, in law, in government, in morality, 
in science — above and beyond the ideas, the beliefs, 
the customs and prejudices of its authors and the 
people among whom they lived ? 

Is there one ray of light from any supernatural 
source ? 

The ancient Hebrews believed that this earth was 
the centre of the universe, and that the sun, moon 
and stars were specks in the sky. 

With this the Bible agrees. 

They thought the earth was flat, with four cor- 
ners; that the sky, the firmament, was solid — the 
floor of Jehovah's house. 

The Bible teaches the same. 

They imagined that the sun journeyed about the 
earth, and that by stopping the sun the day could be 
lengthened. 

The Bible agrees with this. 

They believed that Adam and Eve were the first 
man and woman ; that they had been created but a 
few years before, and that they, the Hebrews, were 
their direct descendants. 

This the Bible teaches. 

If anything is, or can be, certain, the writers of 
the Bible were mistaken about creation, astronomy, 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



13 



geology; about the causes of phenomena, the origin 
of evil and the cause of death. 

Now, it must be admitted that if an Infinite Being 
is the author of the Bible, he knew all sciences, all 
facts, and could not have made a mistake. 

If, then, there are mistakes, misconceptions, false 
theories, ignorant myths and blunders in the Bible, 
it must have been written by finite beings ; that is to 
say, by ignorant and mistaken men. 

Nothing can be clearer than this. 



For centuries the Church insisted that the Bible 
was absolutely true; that it contained no mistakes; 
that the story of creation was true ; that its astronomy 
and geology were in accord with the facts ; that the 
scientists who differed with the Old Testament were 
infidels and atheists. 

Now this has changed. The educated Christians 
admit that the writers of the Bible were not inspired 
as to any science. They now say that God, or 
Jehovah, did not inspire the writers of his book for 
the purpose of instructing the world about astron- 
omy, geology or any science. They now admit that 
the inspired men who wrote the Old Testament knew 
nothing about any science, and that they wrote about 



14 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



the earth and stars, the sun and moon, in accordance 
with the general ignorance of the time. 

It required many centuries to force the theologians 
to this admission. Reluctantly, full of malice and 
hatred, the priests retired from the field, leaving the 
victory with science. 

They took another position : 

They declared that the authors, or rather the 
writers, of the Bible were inspired in spiritual and 
moral things ; that Jehovah wanted to make known to 
his children his will and his infinite love for his 
children ; that Jehovah, seeing his people wicked, 
ignorant and depraved, wished to make them merci- 
ful and just, wise and spiritual, and that the Bible is 
inspired in its laws, in the religion it teaches and in 
its ideas of government. 

This is the issue now. Is the Bible any nearer 
right in its ideas of justice, of mercy, of morality 
or of religion than in its conception of the sciences ? 

Is it moral ? 

It upholds slavery — it sanctions polygamy. 
Could a devil have done worse? 
Is it merciful? 

In war it raised the black flag; it commanded the 
destruction, the massacre, of all — of the old, infirm, 
and helpless — of wives and babes. 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



15 



Were its laws inspired? 

Hundreds of offenses were punished with death. 
To pick up sticks on Sunday, to murder your father 
on Monday, were equal crimes. There is in the 
literature of the world no bloodier code. The law of 
revenge — of retaliation — was the law of Jehovah. 
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a limb for 
a limb. 

This is savagery — not philosophy. 
Is it just and reasonable? 

The Bible is opposed to religious toleration — to 
religious liberty. Whoever differed with the ma- 
jority was stoned to death. Investigation was a 
crime. Husbands were ordered to denounce and to 
assist in killing their unbelieving wives. 

It is the enemy of Art. " Thou shalt make no 
graven image.' ' This was the death of Art. 

Palestine never produced a painter or a sculptor. 

Is the Bible civilized? 

It upholds lying, larceny, robbery, murder, the 
selling of diseased meat to strangers, and even the 
sacrifice of human beings to Jehovah. 

Is it philosophical ? 

It teaches that the sins of a people can be trans- 
ferred to an animal — to a goat. It makes maternity 
an offense, for which a sin offering had to be made. 



16 ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 

It was wicked to give birth to a boy, and twice as 
wicked to give birth to a girl. 

To make hair-oil like that used by the priests* was 
an offense punishable with death. 

The blood of a bird killed over running water was 
regarded as medicine. 

Would a civilized God daub his altars with the 
blood of oxen, lambs and doves? Would he make 
all his priests butchers ? Would he delight in the 
smell of burning flesh? 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



i7 



III. 

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

QOME Christian lawyers — some eminent and stnpid 
^ judges — have said and still say, that the Ten 
Commandments are the foundation of all law. 

Nothing could be more absurd. Long before these 
Commandments were given there were codes of laws 
in India and Egypt — laws against murder, perjury, 
larceny, adultery and fraud. Such laws are as old as 
human society; as old as the love of life; as old as 
industry ; as the idea of prosperity ; as old as human 
love. 

All of the Ten Commandments that are good were 
old; all that were new are foolish. If J ehovah had 
been civilized he would have left out the command- 
ment about keeping the Sabbath, and in its place 
would have said: "Thou shalt no t enslave thy 
fellow-men." He would have omitted the one about 
swearing, and said: "The man shall have but one 
wife, and the woman but one husband.' ' He would 
have left out the one about graven images, and in its 
stead would have said: "Thou shalt not wage wars 



18 ABOUT THE HOL Y BIBLE. 

of extermination, and thou shalt not unsheathe the 
sword except in self-defense.' ' 

If Jehovah had been civilized, how much grander 
the Ten Commandments would have been. 

All that we call progress — the enfranchisement of 
man, of labor, the substitution of imprisonment for 
death, of fine for imprisonment, the destruction of 
polygamy, the establishing of free speech, of the 
rights of conscience ; in short, all that has tended to 
the development and civilization of man; all the 
results of investigation, observation, experience and 
free thought ; all that man has accomplished for the 
benefit of man since the close of the Dark Ages — has 
been done in spite of the Old Testament. 

Let me further illustrate the morality, the mercy, 




THE STORY OF ACHAN. 

Joshua took the City of Jericho. Before the fall 
of the city he declared that all the spoil taken 
should be given to the Lord. 

In spite of this order Achan secreted a garment, 
some silver and gold. 

Afterwards Joshua tried to take the city of Ai. 
He failed and many of his soldiers were slain. 



ABOUT THE HOL V BIBLE. 



19 



Joslma sought for the cause of his defeat and he 
found that Achan had secreted a garment, two 
hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold. To 
this Achan confessed. 

And thereupon Joshua took Achan, his sons and 
his daughters, his oxen and his sheep — stoned them 
all to death and burned their bodies. 

There is nothing to show that the sons and 
daughters had committed any crime. Certainly, the 
oxen and sheep should not have been stoned to 
death for the crime of their owner. This was the 
justice, the mercy, of Jehovah! 

After Joshua had committed this crime, with the 
hdpjrfjehovah he captured the city of Ai. 

THE STORY OF ELISHA. 

" And he went up thence unto Bethel, and as he 
was going up by the way there came forth little 
children out of the city and mocked him, and said 
unto him, 'Go up, thou baldhead.' 

"And he turned back and looked at them, and 
cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there 
came forth two she-bears out of the wood and tore 
forty and two children of them." 

This was the work of the good God — the merciful 
Jehovah ! 



20 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



THE STORY OF DANIEL. 

King Darius Had honored and exalted Daniel, and 
the native princes were jealous. So they induced the 
King to sign a decree to the effect that any man who 
should make a petition to any god or man except to 
King Darius, for thirty days, should be cast into the 
den of lions. 

Afterwards these men found that Daniel, with his 
face toward Jerusalem, prayed three times a day to 
Jehovah. 

Thereupon Daniel was cast into the den of lions ; 
a stone was placed at the mouth of the den and 
sealed with the King's seal. 

The King passed a bad night. The next morning 
he went to the den and cried out to Daniel. Daniel 
answered and told the King that God had sent his 
angel and shut the mouths of the lions. 

Daniel was taken out alive and well, and the King 
was converted and believed in Daniel's god. 

Darius, being then a believer in the true God, sent 
for the men who had accused Daniel, and for their 
wives and their children, and cast them all into the 
lions' den. 

" And the lions had the mastery of them, and brake 
all their bones in pieces, or ever they came at the 
bottom of the pit." 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



21 



What had the wives and little children done? 
How had they offended King Darius, the believer in 
Jehovah ? Who protected Daniel ? Jehovah ! Who 
failed to protect the innocent wives and children ? 

Jehovah ! 

>^'- r -"~~~ ,,ni1 

THE STORY OF JOSEPH. 

Pharaoh had a dream, and this dream was inter- 
preted by Joseph. 

According to this interpretation there was to be in 
Egypt seven years of plenty, followed by seven years 
of famine. Joseph advised Pharaoh to bny all the 
snrplns of the seven plentiful years and store it np 
against the years of famine. 

Pharaoh appointed Joseph as his minister or agent, 
and ordered him to bny the grain of the plentiful 
years. 

Then came the famine. The people came to the 
King for help. He told them to go to Joseph and do 
as he said. 

Joseph sold corn to the Egyptians until all their 
money was gone — until he had it all. 

When the money was gone the people said: " Give 
us corn and we will give you our cattle." 

Joseph let them have corn until all their cattle, 
their horses and their flocks had been given to him. 



22 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



Then the people said: " Give us corn and we will 
give you our lands.' ' 

So Joseph let them have corn until all their lands 
were gone. 

But the famine continued, and so the poor wretches 
sold themselves, and they became the servants of 
Pharoah. 

Then Joseph gave them seed, and made an agree- 
ment with them that they should forever give one- 
fifth of all they raised to Pharaoh. 

Who enabled Joseph to interpret the dream of 
Pharaoh? Jehovah ! Did he know at the time that 
Joseph would use the information thus given to rob 
and enslave the people of Egypt ? Yes. Who pro- 
duced the famine ? Jehovah ! 

It is perfectly apparent that the Jews did not think 
of Jehovah as the God of Egypt — the God of all the 
world. He was their God, and theirs alone. Other 
nations had gods, but Jehovah was the greatest of all. 
He hated other nations and other gods, and abhorred 
all religions except the worship of himself. 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



23 



IV. 

WHAT IS IT ALL WORTH? 

TT7TLL some Christian scholar tell us the value of 
^ * Genesis? 

We know that it is not true — that it contradicts 
itself. There are two accounts of the creation in the 
first and second chapters. In the first account birds 
and beasts were created before man. 

In the second, man was created before the birds 
and beasts. 

In the first, fowls are made out of the water. 

In the second, fowls are made out of the ground. 

In the first, Adam and Eve are created together. 

In the second, Adam is made ; then the beasts and 
birds, and then Eve is created from one of Adam's 
ribs. 

These stories are far older than the Pentateuch. 

Persian : God created the world in six days, a man 
called Adama, a woman called Evah, and then rested. 

The Etruscan, Babylonian, Phoenician, Chaldean 
and the Egyptian stories are much the same. 

The Persians, Greeks, Egyptians, Chinese and 



24 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



Hindus have their Garden of Eden and the Tree 
of Life. 

So the Persians, the Babylonians, the Nubians, the 
people of Southern India, all had the story of the 
Fall of Man and the subtle serpent. 

The Chinese say that sin came into the world by 
the disobedience of woman. And even the Tahitians 
tell us that man was created from the earth, and the 
first woman from one of his bones. 

All these stories are equally authentic and of 
equal value to the world, and all the authors were 
equally inspired. 

We know also that the story of the Flood is much 
older than the book of Genesis, and we know besides 
that it is not true. 

We know that this story in Genesis was copied 
from the Chaldean. There you find all about the 
rain, the ark, the animals, the dove that was sent 
out three times, and the mountain on which the ark 
rested. 

So the Hindus, Chinese, Parsees, Persians, Greeks, 
Mexicans and Scandinavians have substantially the 
same story. 

We also know that the account of the Tower of 
Babel is an ignorant and childish fable. 

What then is left in this inspired book of 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



25 



Genesis ? Is there a word calculated to develop the 
heart or brain ? Is there an elevated thought — 
any great principle — anything poetic — any word 
that bursts into blossom ? 

Is there anything except a dreary and detailed 
statement of things that never happened ? 

Is there anything in Exodus calculated to make 
men generous, loving and noble ? 

Is it well to teach children that God tortured the 
innocent cattle of the Egyptians — bruised them to 
death with hailstones — on account of the sins of 
Pharoah ? 

Does it make us merciful to believe that God 
killed the firstborn of the Egyptians — the firstborn 
of the poor and suffering people — of the poor girl 
working at the mill — because of the wickedness of 
the King ? 

Can we believe that the gods of Egypt worked 
miracles? Did they change water into blood, and 
sticks into serpents ? 

In Exodus there is not one original thought or 
line of value. 

We know, if we know anything, that this book was 
written by^savages^—savages who believed in slavery, 
polygamy and wars of extermination. We know that 
the story told is impossible, and that the miracles 



26 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



were never performed. This book admits that there 
are other gods besides Jehovah. In the 1 7th chapter 
is this verse: "Now I know that the Lord is greater 
than all. gods, for, in the thing wherein they dealt 
proudly, he was above them." 

So, in this blessed book is taught the duty of 
human sacrifice — the sacrifice of babes. 

In the 22d chapter is this command: "Thou shalt 
not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits and of 
thy liquors: the first born of thy sons thou shalt 
give unto me." 

Has Exodus been a help or a hindrance to the 
human race? 

Take from Exodus the laws common to all nations, 
and is there anything of value left? 

Is there anything in Leviticus of importance? 
Is there a chapter worth reading? What interest 
have we in the clothes of priests, the curtains and 
candles of the tabernacle, the tongs and shovels of 
the altar or the hair-oil used by the Levites? 

Of what use the cruel code, the frightful punish 
ments, the curses, the falsehoods and the miracles of 
this ignorant and infamous book? 

And what is there in the book of Numbers — with 
its sacrifices and water of jealousy, with its shew- 
bread and spoons, its kids and fine flour, its oil and 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



27 



candlesticks, its cucumbers, onions and manna — to 
assist and instruct mankind? What interest have 
we in the rebellion of Korah, the water of separa- 
tion, the ashes of a red heifer, the brazen serpent, 
the water that followed the people uphill and down 
for forty years, and the inspired donkey of the 
prophet Balaam? Have these absurdities and 
cruelties — these childish, savage superstitions — 
helped to civilize the world ? 

Is there anything in Joshua — with its wars, its 
murders and massacres, its swords dripping with the 
blood of mothers and babes, its tortures, maimings 
and mutilations, its fraud and fury, its hatred and 
revenge — calculated to improve the world ? 

Does not every chapter shock the heart of a good 
man ? Is it a book to be read by children ? 

The book of Joshua is as merciless as famine, as fero- 
cious as the heart of a wild beast. It is a history — a 
justification — a sanctification of nearly every crime. 

The book of Judges is about the same, nothing 
but war and bloodshed ; the horrible story of Jael 
and Sisera ; of Gideon and his trumpets and pitchers ; 
of Jephtha and his daughter, whom he murdered to 
please Jehovah. 

Here we find the story of Samson, in which a sun- 
god is changed to a Hebrew giant. 



28 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



Read this book of Joshua — read of the slaughter 
of women, of wives, of mothers and babes — read its 
impossible miracles, its ruthless crimes, and all done 
according to the commands of Jehovah, and tell me 
whether this book is calculated to make us forgiving, 
generous and loving. 

I admit that the history of Ruth is in some 
respects a beautiful and touching story; that it is 
naturally told, and that her love for Naomi was deep 
and pure. But in the matter of courtship we would 
hardly advise our daughters to follow the example of 
Ruth. Still, we must remember that Ruth was a 
widow. 

Is there anything worth reading in the first and 
second books of Samuel ? Ought a prophet of God 
to hew a captured king in pieces ? Is the story of 
the ark, its capture and return of importance to us ? 
Is it possible that it was right, just and merciful to 
kill fifty thousand men because they had looked into 
a box ? Of what use to us are the wars of Saul and 
David, the stories of Goliath and the Witch of 
Endor ? Why should Jehovah have killed Uzzah 
for putting forth his hand to steady the ark, and 
forgiven David for murdering Uriah and stealing 
his wife ? 

According to "Samuel," David took a census of 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



29 



the people. This excited the wrath of Jehovah, and 
as a punishment he allowed David to choose seven 
years of famine, a flight of three months from pursu- 
ing enemies, or three days of pestilence. David, 
having confidence in God, chose the three days of 
pestilence ; and, thereupon, God, the compassionate, 
on account of the sin of David, killed seventy 
thousand innocent men ! 

Under the same circumstances, what would a devil 
have done ? 

Is there anything in First and Second Kings that 
suggests the idea of inspiration ? 

When David is dying he tells his son Solomon to 
murder Joab — not to let his hoar head go down to the 
grave in peace. With his last breath he commands 
his son to bring down the hoar head of Shimei to the 
grave with blood. Having uttered these merciful 
words, the good David, the man after God's heart, 
slept with his fathers. 

Was it necessary to inspire the man who wrote the 
history of the building of the temple, the story of the 
visit of the Queen of Sheba, or to tell the number of 
Solomon's wives ? 

What care we for the withering of Jereboam's 
hand, the prophecy of Jehu, or the story of Elijah 
and the ravens ? 



30 ABOUT THE HOL Y BIBLE. 

Can we believe that Elijah brought flames from 
heaven, or that he went at last to Paradise in a 
chariot of fire? 

Can we believe in the multiplication of the widow's 
oil by Elisha, that an army was smitten with blind- 
ness, or that an axe floated in the water? 

Does it civilize us to read about the beheading of 
the seventy sons of Ahab, the putting out of the 
eyes of Zedekiah and the murder of his sons? Is 
there one word in First and Second Kings calculated 
to make men better? 

First and Second Chronicles is but a re-telling of 
what is told in First and Second Kings. The same 
old stories — a little left out, a little added, but in no 
respect made better or worse. 

The book of Ezra is of no importance. He tells 
us that Cyrus, King of Persia, issued a proclamation 
for building a temple at Jerusalem, and that he 
declared Jehovah to be the real and only God. - 

Nothing could be more absurd. Ezra tells us 
about the return from captivity, the building of the 
temple, the dedication, a few prayers, and this is all. 
This book is of no importance, of no use. 

Nehemiah is about the same, only it tells of the 
building of the wall, the complaints of the people 
about taxes, a list of those who returned from 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



3i 



Babylon, a catalogue of those who dwelt at Jeru- 
salem, and the dedication of the walls. 

Not a word in Nehemiah worth reading. 

Then comes the book of Esther : 

In this we are told that King Ahasueras was in- 
toxicated; that he sent for his Queen, Vashti, to come 
and show herself to him and his guests. Vashti 
refused to appear. 

This maddened the King, and he ordered that from 
every province the most beautiful girls should be 
brought before him that he might choose one in place 
of Vashti. 

Among others was brought Esther, a Jewess. She 
was chosen and became the wife of the King. Then 
a gentleman by the name of Haman wanted to have 
all the Jews killed, and the King, not knowing that 
Esther was of that race, signed a decree that all the 
Jews should be killed. 

Through the efforts of Mordecai and Esther the 
decree was annulled and the Jews were saved. 

Haman prepared a gallows on which to have 
Mordecai hanged, but the good Esther so managed 
matters that 'Haman and his ten sons were hanged 
on the gallows that Haman had built, and the Jews 
were allowed to murder more than seventy-five 
thousand of the King's subjects. 

This is the inspired story of Esther. 



32 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



In the book of Job we find some elevated senti- 
ments, some snblime and foolish thoughts, some- 
thing of the wonder and sublimity of nature, the 
joys and sorrows of life; but the story is infamous. 

Some of the Psalms are good, many are indifferent, 
and a few are infamous. In them are mingled the 
vices and virtues. There are verses that elevate; 
verses that degrade. There are prayers for forgive- 
ness and revenge. In the literature of the world 
there is nothing more heartless, more infamous, than 
the 109th Psalm. 

In the Proverbs there is much shrewdness, many 
pithy and prudent maxims, many wise sayings. 
The same ideas are expressed in many ways — the • 
wisdom of economy and silence, the dangers of 
vanity and idleness. Some are trivial, some are 
foolish, and many are wise. These proverbs are not 
generous — not altruistic. Sayings to the same effect 
are found among all nations. 

Ecclesiastes is the most thoughtful book in the 
Bible. It was written by an unbeliever — a philoso- 
pher — an agnostic. Take out the interpolations, and 
it is in accordance with the thought of the Nine- 
teenth Century. In this book are found the most 
philosophic and poetic passages in the Bible. 

After crossing the desert of death and crime— 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 33 

after reading the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, 
Kings and Chronicles — it is delightful to reach this 
grove of palms, called the " Song of Solomon." A 
drama of love — of human love; a poem without 
Jehovah — a poem born of the heart and true to the 
divine instincts of the soul. 

" I sleep, but my heart waketh." 

Isaiah is the work of several. Its swollen words, 
its vague imagery, its prophecies and curses, its 
ravings against kings and nations, its laughter at 
the wisdom of man, its hatred of joy, have not the 
slightest tendency to increase the well-being of 
man. 

In this book is recorded the absurdest of all 
miracles. The shadow on the dial is turned back 
ten degrees, in order to satisfy Hezekiah that 
Jehovah will add fifteen years to his life. 

In this miracle the world, turning from west to 
east at the rate of more than a thousand miles an 
hour, is not only stopped, but made to turn the other 
way until the shadow on the dial went back ten 
degrees ! Is there in the whole world an intelligent 
man or woman who believes this impossible false- 
hood? 

Jeremiah contains nothing of importance — no facts 
of value; nothing but faultfinding, lamentations, 



34 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



croakings, wailings, curses and promises; nothing 
but famine and prayer, the prosperity of the wicked, 
the ruin of the Jews, the captivity and return, and 
at last Jeremiah, the traitor, in the stocks and in 
prison. 

And Lamentations is simply a continuance of the 
ravings of the same insane pessimist; nothing but 
dust and sackcloth and ashes, tears and howls, 
railings and revilings. 

And Ezekiel — eating manuscripts, prophesying 
siege and desolation, with visions of coals of fire, and 
cherubim, and wheels with eyes, and the type and 
figure of the boiling pot, and the resurrection of dry 
bones — is of no use, of no possible value. 

With Voltaire, I say that any one who admires 
Ezekiel should be compelled to dine with him. 

Daniel is a disordered dream — a nightmare. 

What can be made of this book with its image 
with a golden head, with breast and arms of silver, 
with belly and thighs of brass, with legs of iron, and 
with feet of iron and clay ; with its writing on the 
wall, its den of lions, and its vision of the ram and 
goat ? 

Is there anything to be learned from Hosea and 
his wife ? Is there anything of use in Joel, in Amos, 
in Obadiah ? Can we get any good from Jonah and 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



35 



his gourd ? Is it possible that God is the real author 
of Micah and Nahum, of Habakuk and Zephaniah, 
of Haggai and Malachi and Zechariah, with his - 
red horses, his four horns, his four carpenters, his 
flying roll, his mountains of brass and the stone with 
four eyes ? 

Is there anything in these "inspired" books that 
has been of benefit to man? 

Have they taught us how to cultivate the earth, 
to build houses, to weave cloth, to prepare food? 
Have they taught us to paint pictures, to chisel 
statues, to build bridges, or ships, or anything of 
beauty or of use? Did we get our ideas of govern- 
ment, of religious freedom , of the liberty of thought, 
from the Old Testament ? Did we get from any of 
these books a hint of any science? Is there in the 
" sacred volume" a word, a line, that has added to the 
wealth, the intelligence and the happiness of man- 
kind? Is there one of the books of the Old Testa- 
ment as entertaining as Robinson Crusoe, the Travels 
of Gulliver, or Peter Wilkins and his Flying Wife? 
Did the author of Genesis know as much about 
nature as Humboldt, or Darwin, or Haeckel? Is 
what is called the Mosaic Code as wise or as merciful 
as the code of any civilized nation? Were the 
writers of Kings and Chronicles as great historians, 



36 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



as great writers, as Gibbon and Draper? Is Jeremiah 
or Habakuk equal to Dickens or Thackeray? Can 
the authors of Job and the Psalms be compared with 
Shakespeare ? Why should we attribute the best to 
man and the worst to God? 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



37 



V. 

WAS JEHOVAH A GOD OF LOVE? 

DID these words come from the heart of love ? — 
"When the Lord thy God shall drive them 
before thee, thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy 
them ; thou shalt make no covenant with them, or 
show mercy unto them." 

" I will heap mischief upon them. I will send 
mine arrows upon them ; they shall be burned with 
hunger and devoured with burning heat and with 
bitter destruction." 

" I will send the tooth of beasts upon them, with 
the poison of serpents of the dust." 

" The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy 
both the young man and the virgin ; the suckling 
also with the man of gray hairs." 

" Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow ; 
let his children be continually vagabonds and beg ; 
let them seek their bread also out of their desolate 
places ; let the extortioner catch all that he hath, and 
let the stranger spoil his labor; let there be none to 
extend mercy unto him, neither let there be any to 
favor his fatherless children." 



3 8 



ABOUT THE HOL Y BIBLE. 



" And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body — 
the flesh of thy sons and daughters." 

" And the heaven that is over thee shall be brass, 
and the earth that is under thee shall be iron." 

" Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt 
thou be in the field. " 

" I will make my arrows drunk with blood." 

" I will laugh at their calamity." 

Did these curses, these threats, come from the 
heart of love or from the mouth of savagery ? 

Was Jehovah god or devil ? 

Why should we place Jehovah above all the gods ? 

Has man in his ignorance and fear ever imagined 
a greater monster ? 

Have the barbarians of any land, in any time, 
worshipped a more heartless god? 

Brahma was a thousand times nobler, and so was 
Osiris and Zeus and Jupiter. So was the supreme 
god of the Aztecs, to whom they offered only the per- 
fume of flowers. The worst god of the Hindus, with 
his necklace of skulls and his bracelets of living 
snakes, was kind and merciful compared with 
Jehovah. 

Compared with Marcus Aurelius, how small Jeho- 
vah seems. Compared with Abraham Lincoln, how 
cruel, how contemptible, is this god. 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 39 



VI. 

JEHOVAH'S ADMINISTRATION. 

TIE created the world, the hosts of heaven, a man 

and woman — placed them in a garden. Then \ 
the serpent deceived them, and they were cast out 
and made to earn their bread. 

Jehovah had been thwarted. ^ 

Then he tried again. He went on for about six- 
teen hundred years trying to civilize the people. 

No schools, no churches, no Bible, no tracts — 
nobody taught to read or write. No Ten Command- 
ments. The people grew worse and worse, until the 
merciful Jehovah sent the flood and drowned all the 
people except Noah and his family, eight in all. 

Then he started again, and changed their diet. 
At first Adam and Eve were vegetarians. After the 
flood Jehovah said: "Every moving thing that liveth 
shall be meat for you" — snakes and buzzards. 

Then he failed again, and at the Tower of Babel 
he dispersed and scattered the people. 

Finding that he could not succeed with all the 
people, he thought he would try a few, so he selected 
Abraham and his descendants. Again he failed, and 



4o 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



his chosen people were captured by the Egyptians 
and enslaved for four hundred years. 

Then he tried again — rescued them from Pharaoh 
and started for Palestine. 

Then he changed their diet, allowing them to eat 
only the beasts that parted the hoof and chewed the 
cud. Again he failed. The people hated him, and 
preferred the slavery of Egypt to the freedom of 
Jehovah. So he kept them wandering until nearly 
all who came, from Egypt had died. Then he tried 
again — took them into Palestine and had them 
governed by judges. 

This, too, was a failure— no schools, no Bible. 
Then he tried kings, and the kings were mostly 
idolaters. 

Then the chosen people were conquered and car- 
ried into captivity by the Babylonians. 
Another failure. 

Then they returned, and Jehovah tried prophets — 
howlers and wailers — but the people grew worse and 
worse. No schools, no sciences, no arts, no com- 
merce. Then Jehovah took upon himself flesh, was 
born of a woman, and lived among the people that 
he had been trying to civilize for several thousand 
years. Then these people, following the law that 
Jehovah had given them in the wilderness, charged 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



41 



this Jehovah-man — this Christ — with blasphemy; 
tried, convicted and killed him. 
Jehovah had failed again. 

Then he deserted the Jews and tnrned his atten- 
tion to the rest of the world. 

And now the Jews, deserted by Jehovah, perse- 
cuted by Christians, are the most prosperous people 
on the earth. Again has Jehovah failed. 

What an administration! 



42 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



VII. 

THE NEW TESTAMENT. 

TT7H0 wrote the New Testament ? 

* * Christian scholars admit that they do not know. 
They admit that, if the fonr gospels were written by 
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, they mnst have 
been written in Hebrew. And yet a Hebrew manu- 
script of any one of these gospels has never been 
found. All have been and are in Greek. So, edu- 
cated theologians admit that the Epistles, James and 
Jude, were written by persons who had never seen 
one of the four gospels. In these Epistles — in James 
and Jude — no reference is made to any of the gos- 
pels, nor to any miracle recorded in them. 

The first mention that has been found of one of 
our gospels was made about one hundred and eighty 
years after the birth of Christ, and the four gospels 
were first named and quoted from at the beginning 
of the Third Century, about one hundred and 
seventy years after the death of Christ. 

We now know that there were many other gospels 
besides our four, some of which have been lost. 
There were the gospels of Paul, of the Egyptians, of 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



43 



the Hebrews, of Perfection, of Judas, of Thaddeus, of 
the Infancy, of Thomas, of Mary, of Andrew, of Nic- 
odemus, of Marcion and several others. 

So there were the Acts of Pilate, of Andrew, of 
Mary, of Paul and Thecla and of many others. 
Another book called the Shepherd of Hermes. 

At first not one of all the books was considered as 
inspired. The Old Testament was regarded as di- 
vine ; but the books that now constitute the New 
Testament were regarded as human productions. 
We now know that we do not know who wrote the 
four gospels. 

The question is, Were the authors of these four 
gospels inspired ? 

If they were inspired, then the four gospels must be 
true. If they are true, they must agree. 

The four gospels do not agree. 

Matthew, Mark and Luke knew nothing of the 
Atonement, nothing of salvation by faith. They 
knew only the gospel of good deeds — of charity. They 
teach that if we forgive others God will forgive us. 

With this the gospel of John does not agree. 

In that gospel we are taught that we must believe 
on the Lord Jesus Christ; that we must be bom 
again ; that we must drink the blood and eat the flesh 
of Christ. In this gospel we find the doctrine of the 



44 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



Atonement and that Christ died for ns and suffered in 
our place. 

This gospel is utterly at variance with the other 
three. If the other three are true, the gospel of John 
is false. If the gospel of John was written by an in- 
spired man, the writers of the other three were unin- 
spired. From this there is no possible escape. The 
four cannot be true. 

It is evident that there are many interpolations in 
the four gospels. 

For instance, in the 28th chapter of Matthew is an 
account to the effect that the soldiers at the tomb of 
Christ were bribed to say that the disciples of Jesus 
stole away his body while they, the soldiers, slept. 

This is clearly an interpolation. It is a break in 
the narrative. 

The 10th verse should be followed by the 16th. 
The 10th verse is as follows: 

"Then Jesus said unto them, ' Be not afraid ; go 
tell my brethren that they go unto Galilee and there 
shall they see me.' " 

The 1 6th verse : 

" Then the eleven disciples went away unto Gali- 
lee into a mountain, where Jesus had appointed 
them." 

The story about the soldiers contained in the nth, 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



45 



12th, 13th, 14th and 15th verses is an interpolation 
— an afterthought — long after. The 1 5th verse dem- 
onstrates this. 

Fifteenth verse : " So they took the money and did as 
they were taught. And this saying is commonly 
reported among the Jews until this day." 

Certainly, this account was not in the original 
gospel, and certainly the 15th verse was not written 
by a Jew. No Jew could have written this: u And 
this saying is commonly reported among the Jews 
until this day." 

Mark, John and Luke never heard that the soldiers 
had been bribed by the priests ; or, if they had, did 
not think it worth while recording. So the accounts 
of the Ascension of Jesus Christ in Mark and Luke 
are interpolations. Matthew says nothing about the 
Ascension. 

Certainly there never was a greater miracle, and 
yet Matthew, who was present — who saw the Lord 
rise, ascend and disappear — did not think it worth 
mentioning. 

On the other hand, the last words of Christ, ac- 
cording to Matthew, contradict the Ascension : " Lo I 
am with you always, even unto the end of the world." 

John, who was present, if Christ really ascended, 
says not one word on the subject. 



4 6 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



As to the Ascension, the gospels do not agree. 

Mark gives the last conversation that Christ had 
with his disciples, as follows : 

"Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to 
every creature. He that believeth and is baptised 
shall be saved ; but he that believeth not shall be 
damned. And these signs shall follow them that be- 
lieve : In my name shall they cast out devils ; they 
shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up 
serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing it shall 
not hurt them ; they shall lay hands on the sick and 
they shall recover. So, then, after the Lord had 
spoken unto them,, he was received up into heaven 
and sat on the right hand of God." 

Is it possible that this description was written by 
one who witnessed this miracle ? 

This miracle is described by Luke as follows : 
" And it came to pass while he blessed them he was 
parted from them and carried up into heaven." 

" Brevity is the soul of wit." 

In the Acts we are told that: "When he had 
spoken, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a 
cloud received him out of their sight." 

Neither Luke, nor Matthew, nor John, nor the 
N writer of the Acts, heard one word of the conversation 
attributed to Christ by Mark. The fact is that the 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



47 



Ascension of Christ was not claimed by his disciples. 

At first Christ was a man — nothing more. Mary 
was his mother, Joseph his father. The genealogy 
of his father, Joseph, was given to show that he was 
of the blood of David. 

Then the claim was made that he was the son of 
God, and that his mother was a virgin, and that she 
remained a virgin until her death. 

Then the claim was made that Christ rose from 
the dead and ascended bodily to heaven. 

It required many years for these absurdities to 
take possession of the minds of men. 

If Christ rose from the dead, why did he not appear 
to his enemies ? Why did he not call on Caiphas, 
the high priest ? Why did^ he not make another 
triumphal entry into Jerusalem ? 

If he really ascended, why did he not do so in 
public, in the presence of his persecutors ? Why 
should this, the greatest of miracles, be done in secret 
in a corner ? 

It was a miracle that could have been seen by a 
vast multitude — a miracle that could not be simu- 
lated — one that would have convinced hundreds of 
thousands. 

After the story of the Resurrection, the Ascension 
became a necessity. They had to dispose of the body. 



48 ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 

So there are many other interpolations in the gos- 
pels and epistles. 

Again I ask : Is the New Testament trne ? 
Does anybody now believe that at the birth of Christ 
there was a celestial greeting ; that a star led the Wise 
Men of the East ; that Herod slew the babes of Bethle- 
hem of two years x)ld and Jimder ? 

The gospels are rilled with acconnts of miracles. 
Were they ever performed ? 

Matthew gives the particulars of about twenty-two 
miracles, Mark of about nineteen, Luke of about 
eighteen and John of about seven. 

According to the gospels, Christ healed diseases, 
cast out devils, rebuked the sea, cured the blind, fed 
multitudes with five loaves and two fishes, walked on 
the sea, cursed a fig tree, turned water into wine and 
raised the dead. 

Matthew is the only one that tells about the Star 
and the Wise Men — the only one that tells about the 
murder of babes. 

John is the only one who says anything about the 
resurrection of Lazarus, and Luke is the only one 
giving an account of the raising from the dead the 
widow of Nain's son. 

How is it possible to substantiate these miracles ? 

The Jews, among whom they were said to have 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 49 

been performed, did not believe them. The diseased, 
the palsied, the leprous, the blind who were cured, did 
not become followers of Christ. Those that were 
raised from the dead were never heard of again. 

Does any intelligent man believe in the existence 
of devils ? The writer of three of the gospels cer- 
tainly did. John says nothing about Christ having 
cast out devils, but Matthew, Mark and Luke give 
many instances. 

Does any natural man now believe that Christ cast 
out devils ? If his disciples said he did, they were 
mistaken. If Christ said he did, he was insane or an 
^ impostor. 

If the accounts of casting out devils are false, then 
the writers were ignorant or dishonest. If they 
wrote through ignorance, then they were not inspired. 
If they wrote what they knew to be false, they were 
not inspired. If what they wrote is untrue, whether 
they knew it or not, they were- not inspired. 

At that time it was believed that palsy, epilepsy, 
deafness, insanity and many other diseases were 
caused by devils ; that devils took possession of and 
lived in the bodies of men and women. Christ be- 
lieved this, taught this belief to others, and pretended 
to cure diseases by casting devils out of the sick and 
insane. We know now, if we know anything, that 



5o 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



diseases are not caused by the presence of devils. We 
know, if we know anything, that devils do not reside 
in the bodies of men. 

If Christ said and did what the writers of the three 
gospels say he said and did, then Christ was mis- 
taken. If he was mistaken, certainly he was not 
God. And, if he was mistaken, certainly he was not 
inspired. 

Is it a fact that the Devil tried to bribe Christ ? 

Is it a fact that the Devil carried Christ to the top 
of the temple and tried to induce him to leap to the 
ground ? 

How can these miracles be established ? 

The principals have written nothing, Christ has 
written nothing, and the Devil has remained 
silent. 

How can we know that the Devil tried to bribe 
Christ ? Who wrote the account ? We do not know. 
How did the writer get his information ? We do not 
know. 

Somebody, some seventeen hundred years ago, said 
that the Devil tried to bribe God ; that the Devil car- 
ried God to the top of the temple and tried to induce 
him to leap to the earth and that God was intel- 
lectually too keen for the Devil. 

This is all the evidence we have. 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



5i 



Is there anything in the literature of the world 
more perfectly idiotic ? 

Intelligent people no longer believe in witches, 
wizards, spooks and devils, and they are perfectly 
satisfied that every word in the New Testament about 
casting out devils is utterly false. 

Can we believe that Christ raised the dead ? 

A widow living in Nain is following the body of 
her son to the tomb. Christ halts the funeral pro- 
cession and raises the young man from the dead and 
gives him back to the arms of his mother. 

This young man disappears. He is never heard of 
again. No one takes the slightest interest in the 
man who returned from the realm of death. Luke is 
the only one who tells the story. Maybe Matthew, 
Mark and John never heard of it, or did not believe 
it and so failed to record it. 

John says that Lazarus was raised from the dead ; 
Matthew, Mark and Luke say nothing about it. 

It was more wonderful than the raising of the 
widow's son. He had not been laid in the tomb for 
days. He was only on his way to the grave, but 
Lazarus was actually dead. He had begun to decay. 

Lazarus did not excite the least interest. No one 
asked him about the other world. No one inquired 
of him about their dead friends. 



52 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



When lie died the second time no one said: " He 
is not afraid. He has traveled that road twice and 
knows just where he is going." 

We do not believe in the miracles of Mohammed, 
and yet they are as well attested as this. We have 
no confidence in the miracles performed by Joseph 
Smith, and yet the evidence is far greater, far better. 

If a man should go about now pretending to raise 
the dead, pretending to cast out devils, we would re- 
gard him as insane. What, then, can we say of 
Christ ? If we wish to save his reputation we are 
compelled to say that he never pretended to raise the 
dead ; that he never claimed to have cast out devils. 

We must take the ground that these ignorant and 
impossible things were invented by zealous disciples, 
who sought to deify their leader. 

In those ignorant days these falsehoods added to 
the fame of Christ. But now they put his character 
in peril and belittle the authors of the gospels. 

Can we now believe that water was changed into 
wine ? John tells of this childish miracle, and says 
that the other disciples were present, yet Matthew, 
Mark and Luke say nothing about it. 

Take the miracle of the man cured by the pool of 
Bethseda. John says that an angel troubled the 
waters of the pool of Bethseda, and that whoever got 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



53 



into the pool first after the waters were troubled was 
healed. 

Does anybody now believe that an angel went into 
the pool and troubled the waters? Does anybody now 
think that the poor wretch who got in first was 
healed? Yet the author of the gospel according to 
John believed and asserted these absurdities. If he 
was mistaken about that he may have been about all 
the miracles he records. 

John is the only one who tells about this pool of 
Bethseda. Possibly the other disciples did not be- 
lieve the story. 

How can we account for these pretended miracles ? 

In the days of the disciples, and for many centuries 
after, the world was filled with the supernatural. 
Nearly everything that happened was regarded as 
miraculous. God was the immediate governor of the 
world. If the people were good, God sent seed time 
and harvest ; but if they were bad he sent flood and 
hail, frost and famine. If anything wonderful hap- 
pened it was exaggerated until it became a miracle. 

Of the order of events — of the unbroken and the 
unbreakable chain of causes and effects — the people 
had no knowledge and no thought. 

A miracle is the badge and brand of fraud. No 
miracle ever was performed. No intelligent, honest 



54 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



man ever pretended to perform a miracle, and never 
will. 

If Christ had wrought the miracles attributed to 
him ; if he had cured the palsied and insane ; if he 
had given hearing to the deaf, vision to the blind ; if 
he had cleansed the leper with a word, and with a 
touch had given life and feeling to the withered limb ; 
if he had given pulse and motion, warmth and 
thought, to cold and breathless clay ; if he had con- 
quered death and rescued from the grave its pallid 
prey — no word would have been uttered, no hand 
raised, except in praise and honor. In his presence 
all heads would have been uncovered — all knees upon 
the ground. 

Is it not strange that at the trial of Christ no one 
was found to say a word in his favor? No man 
■ stood forth and said : "I was a leper, and this man 
cured me with a touch." No woman said : " I am 
the widow of Nain and this is my son whom this 
man raised from the dead." 

No man said : "I was blind, and this man gave me 
sight." 

All silent. 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



55 



VIII. 

THE PHILOSOPHY OF CHRIST. 

TV /TILLIONS assert that the philosophy of Christ 
is perfect — that tie was the wisest that ever 
uttered speech. 
Let us see : 

Resist not evil. If smitten on one cheek turn the 
other. 

Is there any philosophy, any wisdom in this ? 
Christ takes from goodness, from virtue, from the 
truth, the right of self-defense. Vice becomes the 
master of the world, and the good become the victims 
of the infamous. 

No man has the right to protect himself, his prop- 
erty, his wife and children. Government becomes 
impossible, and the world is at the mercy of crimi- 
nals. Is there any absurdity beyond this ? 

Love your enemies. 

Is this possible ? Did any human being ever love 
his enemies ? Did Christ love his, when he de- 
nounced them as whited sepulchers, hypocrites and 
vipers ? 

We cannot love those who hate us. Hatred in the 



56 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



hearts of others does not breed love in ours. Not to re- 
sist evil is absurd; to love your enemies is impossible. 

Take no thought for the morrow. 

The idea was that God would take care of us as he 
did of sparrows and lilies. Is there the least sense in 
that belief? 

Does God take care of anybody ? 

Can we live without taking thought for the mor- 
row ? To plow, to sow, to cultivate, to harvest, is to 
take thought for the morrow. We plan and work 
for the future, for our children, for the unborn gener- 
ations to come. Without this forethought there 
could be no progress, no civilization. The world 
would go back to the caves and dens of savagery. 

If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out. If thy 
right hand offend thee, cut it off. 

Why ? Because it is better that one of our mem- 
bers should perish than that the whole body should 
be cast into hell. 

Is there any wisdom in putting out your eyes or 
cutting off your hands ? Is it possible to extract 
from these extravagant sayings the smallest grain of 
common sense ? 

Swear not at all ; neither by Heaven, for it is God's 
throne ; nor by the Earth, for it is his footstool ; nor by 
Jerusalem, for it is his holy city. 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



57 



Here we find the astronomy and geology of Christ. 
Heaven is the throne of God, the monarch ; the earth 
is his footstool. A footstool that tnrns over at the 
rate of a thousand miles an hour, and sweeps through 
space at the rate of over a thousand miles a minute ! 

Where did Christ think heaven was ? Why was 
Jerusalem a holy city ? Was it because the inhabi- 
tants were ignorant, cruel and superstitious ? 

If a man sue thee at law and take away your coat, 
give him your cloak also. 

Is there any philosophy, any good sense, in that 
commandment ? Would it not be j ust as sensible to 
say : " If a man obtains a judgment against you for 
one hundred dollars, give him two hundred." 

Only the insane could give or follow this advice. 

Think not I am come to send peace on earth. I 
came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to 
set a man at variance against his father, and the 
daughter against her mother. 

If this is true, how much better it would have been 
had he remained away. 

Is it possible that he who said, " Resist not evil," 
came to bring a sword? That he who said, " Love 
your enemies," came to destroy the peace of the world ? 

To set father against son, and daughter against 
father — what a glorious mission ! 



58 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



He did bring a sword, and the sword was wet for a 
thousand years with innocent blood. In millions of 
hearts he sowed the seeds of hatred and revenge. 
He divided nations and families, put out the light of 
reason, and petrified the hearts of men. 

And every one that hath forsaken houses, or breth- 
ren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or chil- 
dren, or lands, for my name^s sake, shall receive an 
hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. 

According to the writer of Matthew, Christ, the 
compassionate, the . merciful, uttered these terrible 
words. Is it possible that Christ offered the bribe of 
eternal joy to those who would desert their fathers, 
their mothers, their wives and children ? Are we to 
win the happiness of heaven by deserting the ones 
we love ? Is a home to be ruined here for the sake 
of a mansion there ? 

And yet it is said that Christ is an example for all 
the world. Did he desert his father and mother ? 
He said, speaking to his mother: "Woman, what 
have I to do with thee? " 

The Pharisees said unto Christ : " Is it lawful to pay 
tribute unto Caesar ? 

Christ said : " Show me the tribute money." They 
brought him a penny. And he saith unto them : 
" Whose is the image and the superscription ? " They 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 59 

said : " Caesar's." And Christ said: " Render unto 
Caesar trie things that are Caesar's. " 

Did Christ think that the money belonged to 
Caesar because his image and superscription were 
stamped upon it ? Did the penny belong to Caesar 
or to the man who had earned it ? Had Caesar the 
right to demand it because it was adorned with his 
image ? 

Does it appear from this conversation that Christ 
understood the real nature and use of money ? 

Can we now say that Christ was the greatest of 
philosophers ? 



6o 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



IX. 

IS CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE? 

TTE never said a word in favor of education. He 
never even hinted at the existence of any science. 
He never uttered a word in favor of industry, economy 
or of any effort to better our condition in this world. 
He was the enemy of the successful, of the wealthy. 
Dives was sent to hell, not because he was bad, but 
because he was rich. Lazarus went to heaven, not 
because he was good, but because he was poor. 

Christ cared nothing for painting, for sculpture, for 
music — nothing for any art. He said nothing about 
the duties of nation to nation, of king to subject; 
nothing about the rights of man ; nothing about intel- 
lectual liberty or the freedom of speech. He said 
nothing about the sacredness of home ; not one word 
for the fireside ; not a word in favor of marriage, in 
honor of maternity. 

He never married. He wandered homeless from 
place to place with a few disciples. None of them 
seem to have been engaged in any useful business, 
and they seem to have lived on alms. 

All human ties were held in contempt ; this world 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



6: 



was sacrificed for the next ; all human effort was 
discouraged. God would support and protect. 

At last, in the dusk of death, Christ, finding that 
he was mistaken, cried out : " My God ! My God ! 
Why hast thou forsaken me?" 

We have found that man must depend on him- 
self. He must clear the land ; he must build the 
home ; he must plow and plant ; he must invent ; he 
must work with hand and brain ; he must overcome 
the difficulties and obstructions; he must conquer 
and enslave the forces of nature to the end that they 
may do the work of the world. 



62 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



X. 



WHY SHOULD WE PLACE CHRIST AT THE TOP AND 
SUMMIT OF THE HUMAN RACE? 

TTTAS he kinder, more forgiving, more self-sacrific- 



r * ing than Buddha? Was he wiser, did he meet 
death with more perfect calmness, than Socrates ? Was 
he more patient, more charitable, than Epictetus? 
Was he a greater philosopher, a deeper thinker, than 
Epicurus? In what respect was he the superior of 
Zoroaster? Was he gentler than Laotse, more univer- 
sal than Confucius ? Were his ideas of human rights 
and duties superior to those of Zeno ? Did he express 
grander truths than Cicero? Was his mind subtler 
than Spinoza's ? Was his brain equal to Kepler's or 
Newton's? Was he grander in death- — a sublimer 
martyr than Bruno ? Was he in intelligence, in the 
force and beauty of expression, in breadth and scope 
of thought, in wealth of illustration, in aptness of 
comparison, in knowledge of the human brain and 
heart, of all passions, hopes and fears, the equal of 
Shakespeare, the greatest of the human race? 

If Christ was in fact God, he knew all the future. 




ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 63 

Before Him like a panorama moved the history yet to 
be. He knew how his words would be interpreted. 
He knew what crimes, what horrors, what infamies, 
wonld be committed in his name. He knew that the 
hungry flames of persecution would climb around 
the limbs of countless martyrs. He knew that 
thousands and thousands of brave men axxd women 
would languish in dungeons in darkness, filled with 
pain. He knew that his church would invent and 
use instruments of torture ; that his followers would 
appeal to whip and fagot, to chain and rack. He 
saw the horizon of the future lurid with the flames 
of the auto da fe. He knew what creeds would 
spring like poisonous fungi from every text. He 
saw the ignorant sects waging war against each 
other. He saw thousands of men, under the orders 
of priests, building prisons for their fellow-men. 
He saw thousands of scaffolds dripping with the best 
and bravest blood. He saw his followers using the 
instruments of pain. He heard the groans — saw 
the faces white with agony. He heard the shrieks 
and sobs and cries of all the moaning, martyred 
multitudes. He knew that commentaries would be 
written on his words with swords, to be read by the 
light of fagots. He knew that the Inquisition 
would be born of the teachings attributed to him. 



6 4 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



He saw the interpolations and falsehoods that 
hypocrisy would write and tell. He saw all wars 
that would be waged, and he knew that above these 
fields of death, these dungeons, these rackings, these 
burnings, these executions, for a thousand years 
would float the dripping banner of the cross. 

He knew that hypocrisy would be robed and 
crowned — that cruelty and credulity would rule the 
world; knew that liberty would perish from the 
earth; knew that popes and kings in his name 
would enslave the souls and bodies of men; knew 
that they would persecute and destroy the discov- 
erers, thinkers and inventors ; knew that his church 
would extinguish reason's holy light and leave the 
world without a star. 

He saw his disciples extinguishing the eyes of 
men, flaying them alive, cutting out their tongues, 
searching for all the nerves of pain. 

He knew that in his name his followers would 
trade in human flesh ; that cradles would be robbed 
and women's breasts unbabed for gold. 

And yet he died with voiceless lips. 

Why did he fail to speak ? Why did he not tell 
his disciples, and through them the world: " You 
shall not burn, imprison and torture in my name. 
You shall not persecute your fellow-men." 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



65 



Why did lie not plainly say : "I am the Son of 
God," or, "I am God?" Why did he not explain 
the Trinity ? Why did he not tell the mode of bap- 
tism that was pleasing to him? Why did he not 
write a creed ? Why did he not break the chains of 
slaves ? Why did he not say that the Old Testa- 
ment was or was not the inspired word of God ? 
Why did he not write the New Testament himself? 
Why did he leave his words to ignorance, hypocrisy 
and chance ? Why did he not say something posi- 
tive, definite and satisfactory about another world ? 
Why did he not turn the tear-stained hope of heaven 
into the glad knowledge of another life ? Why did 
he not tell us something of the rights of man, of the 
liberty of hand and brain ? 

Why did he go dumbly to his death, leaving the 
world to misery and to doubt ? 

I will tell you why. He was a man, and did not 
know. 



66 



ABOUT THE HOL Y BIBLE. 



XL 



INSPIRATION. 



OT before about the Third Century was it claimed 



^ or believed that the books composing the New 
Testament were inspired. 

It will be remembered that there were a great num- 
ber of books, of Gospels, Epistles and Acts, and that 
« from these the " inspired " ones were selected by " un- 
inspired " men. 

Between the "Fathers" there were great differences 
of opinion as to which books were inspired; much 
discussion and plenty of hatred. Many of the books 
now deemed spurious were by many of the " Fathers " 
regarded as divine, and some now regarded as in- 
spired were believed to be spurious. Many of the 
early Christians and some of the "Fathers" repudi- 
ated the gospel of John, the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
Jude, James, Peter, and the Revelation of St. John. 
On the other hand, many of them regarded the Gospel 
of the Hebrews, of the Egyptians, the Preaching of 
Peter, the Shepherd of Hernias, the Epistle of Bar- 
nabus, the Pastor of Hermas, the Revelation of Peter, 
the Revelation of Paul, the Epistle of Clement, the 




ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



67 



Gospel of Nicodemus, inspired books, equal to the 
very best. 

From all these books, and many others, the Chris- 
tians selected the inspired ones. 

The men who did the selecting were ignorant and 
superstitious. They were firm believers in the 
miraculous. They thought that diseases had been 
cured by the aprons and handkerchiefs of the apos- 
tles, by the bones of the dead. They believed in the 
fable of the Phoenix, and that the hyenas changed 
their sex every year. 

Were the men who through many centuries made 
the selections inspired? Were they — ignorant, cred- 
ulous, stupid and malicious — as well qualified to judge 
of " inspiration " as the students of our time ? How 
are we bound by their opinion ? Have we not the 
right to judge for ourselves ? 

Erasmus, one of the leaders of the Reformation, 
declared that the Epistle to the Hebrews was not 
written by Paul, and he denied the inspiration of 
Second and Third John, and also of Revelation. 
Luther was of the same opinion. He declared James 
to be an epistle of straw, and denied the inspiration 
of Revelations. Zwinglius rejected the book of Rev- 
elation, and even Calvin denied that Paul was the 
author of Hebrews. 



68 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



The truth is that the Protestants did not agree as 
to what books are inspired until 1647, by the Assem- 
bly of Westminster. 

To prove that a book is inspired you must prove 
the existence of God. You must also prove that this 
God thinks, acts, has objects, ends and aims. This 
is somewhat dim cult. 

It is impossible to conceive of an infinite being. 
Having no conception of an infinite being, it is 
impossible to tell whether all the facts we know 
tend to prove or disprove the existence of such a 
being. 

God is a guess. If the existence of God is admitted, 
how are we to prove that he inspired the writers of 
the books of the Bible ? 

How can one man establish the inspiration of an- 
other ? How can an inspired man prove that he is 
inspired? How can he know himself that he is in- 
spired? There is no way to prove the fact of inspi- 
ration. The only evidence is the word of some man 
who could by no possibility know anything on the 
subject. 

What is inspiration? Did God use men as instru- 
ments ? Did he cause them to write his thoughts ? 
Did he take possession of their minds and destroy 
their wills ? 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



69 



Were these writers only partly controlled, so that 
their mistakes, their ignorance and their prejudices 
were mingled with the wisdom of God ? 

How are we to separate the mistakes of man from 
the thoughts of God ? Can we do this without being 
inspired ourselves ? If the original writers were in- 
spired, then the translators should have been, and so 
should be the men who tell us what the Bible means. 

How is it possible for a human being to know that 
he is inspired by an infinite being ? But of one 
thing we may be certain : An inspired book should 
certainly excel all the books produced by uninspired 
men. It should, above all, be true, filled with wis- 
dom, blossoming in beauty — perfect. 

Ministers wonder how I can be wicked enough to 
attack the Bible. 
I will tell them : 

This book, the Bible, has persecuted, even unto 
death, the wisest and the best. This book stayed 
and stopped the onward movement of the human 
race. This book poisoned the fountains of learning 
and misdirected the energies of man. 

This book is the enemy of freedom, the support of 
slavery. This book sowed the seeds of hatred in 



7 o 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



families and nations, fed the flames of war, and im- 
poverished the world. This book is the breastwork 
of kings and tyrants — the enslaver of women and 
children. This book has corrupted parliaments and 
courts. This book has made colleges and universi- 
ties the teachers of error and the haters of science. 
This book has filled Christendom with hateful, cruel, 
ignorant and warring sects. This book taught men 
to kill their fellows for religion's sake. This book 
founded the inquisition, invented the instruments of 
torture, built the dungeons in which the good and 
loving languished, forged the chains that rusted in 
their flesh, erected the scaffolds whereon they died. 
This book piled fagots about the feet of the just. 
This book drove reason from the minds of millions 
and filled the asylums with the insane. 

This book has caused fathers and mothers to shed 
the blood of their babes. This book was the auction 
block on which the slave-mother stood when she was 
sold from her child. This book filled the sails of 
the slave-trader and made merchandise of human 
flesh. This book lighted the fires that burned 
"witches'' and "wizards." This book filled the 
darkness with ghouls and ghosts, and the bodies of 
men and women with devils. This book polluted the 
souls of men with the infamous dogma of eternal 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



pain. This book made credulity the greatest of 
virtues, and investigation the greatest of crimes. 
This book filled nations with hermits, monks and 
nuns — with the pious and the useless. This book 
placed the ignorant and unclean saint above the 
philosopher and philanthropist. This book taught 
man to despise the joys of this life, that he might 
be happy in another — to waste this world for the 
sake of the next. 

I attack this book because it is the enemy of human 
liberty — the greatest obstruction across the highway 
of human progress. 

Let me ask the ministers one question : How can 
you be wicked enough to defend this book? 



72 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



XII. 

THE REAL BIBLE. 

T^OR thousands of years men have been writing the 
■ real Bible, and it is being written from day to day, 
and it will never be finished while man has life. All 
the facts that we know, all the truly recorded events, 
all the discoveries and inventions, all the wonderful 
machines whose wheels and levers seem to think, all 
the poems, crystals from, the brain, flowers from the 
heart, all the songs of love and joy, of smiles and 
tears, the great dramas of Imagination's world, the 
wondrous paintings, miracles of form and color, of 
light and shade, the marvellous marbles that seem 
to live and breathe, the secrets told by rock and star, 
by dust and flower, by rain and snow, by frost and 
flame, by winding stream and desert sand, by moun- 
tain range and billowed sea. 

All the wisdom that lengthens and ennobles life — 
all that avoids or cures disease, or conquers pain — all 
just and perfect laws and rules that guide and shape 
our lives, all thoughts that feed the flames of love, 
the music that transfigures, enraptures and enthralls, 
the victories of heart and brain, the miracles that 



ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. 



73 



hands have wrought, the deft and cunning hands of 
those who worked for wife and child, the histories of 
noble deeds, of brave and useful men, of faithful 
loving wives, of quenchless mother-love, of conflicts 
for the right, of sufferings for the truth, of all the 
best that all the men and women of the world have 
said, and thought and done through all the years. 

These treasures of the heart and brain — these are 
the Sacred Scriptures of the human race. 



NOTICE ! 



For any and all of Col. Ingersoix's writings, 
the ONLY authorized editions printed from his 
revised and enlarged manuscripts, always send to 

C. P. FARRELL, 

NEW YORK CITY, N. Y. 

When your bookseller says a book is out of 
print, drop a postal card to his authorized pub- 
lisher and you will be sure to get the book you 
are looking for. 



A New Edition. Just Published! 



A SHORT HISTORY OF THE BIBLE: 

BEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE FORMATION 
AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE CANON. 

BY 

BRONSON C. KEELER. 



Price, Cloth, 75 cents. Paper, 50 cents. 



This book should be read by every Clergyman, Layman, 
Scholar and Liberal. 



1 have read Mr. Keeler's book with great pleasure and profit. He 
gives, in my opinion, a clear and intelligent account of the growth of 
the bible. He shows why books were received as inspired, and why 
they were rejected. He does not deal in opinions, but in fads; and 
for the correctness of his fads, he refers to the highest authorities. 
He has shown exactly who the Christian fathers were, and the weight 
that their evidence is entitled to. The first centuries of Christianity 
are filled with shadow ; most histories of that period simply tell us 
what did not happen, and even the statements of what did not happen 
are contradictory. The falsehoods do not agree. Mr. Keeler must 
have spent a great deal of time in the examination of a vast number 
of volumes, and the amount of information contained in his book 
could not be collected in years. Every minister, every college pro- 
fessor, and every man who really wishes to know something about 
the origin and growth of the bib J e, should read this book— R. G. 
Ingersoll. 



A Grand Book : as interesting and entertaining as any novel ! 



INGERSOLL'S 

Interviews on 

These Interviews were called out in answer to a series of 
theological discourses by Mr. Talmage. Three of them were 
originally given to a reporter of the daily press, but were after- 
wards revised and enlarged and three others added. The three 
newspaper reports being immediately pirated by so-called enter- 
prising but unprincipled publishers, were put upon the market in 
flimsy paper covers and heralded as the genuine " Ingersoll In- 
terviews." It is sufficient to say that in no other shape than the 
present complete volume are these " Interviews " to be had in 
their accurate and authorized entirety. 

As to the subject-matter it is essentially polemical, although 
not bitterly so. The foolish as well as serious phases of theo- 
logical ignorance and assumption are exposed to merited ridicule, 
and the weapons of good-natured wit and sarcasm are employed 
to laugh and shame religious superstition and arrogance out of 
court. In the " Talmagian Catechism " especially, which sums 
up the six interviews, are shafts of wit and satire as keen and 
polished as ever sped from human brain. They go straight to the 
mark, and remind one of Voltaire's pointed though not poisoned 
arrows aimed at the priestly pretensions of his day. In the 
graver and more serious statements and arguments, the facts and 
figures are splendidly marshalled and bear down with resistless 
form upon the theological foe, breaking his ranks and scattering 
his forces like chaff before a gale. 

There is not in literature another such book. It is a free- 
thought library in itself, and especially timely just now when 
bibles and creeds are being overhauled and "revision and divis- 
ion are in the air." No collection of Mr. Ingersoll's books is 
complete that does not include this in some respects his most 
remarkable work. 

A handsome 8°, 443 pages, gilt top, beveled edges, good paper, 
bold type, $2.00. From same plates, plain cloth, $1.25. Paper, 
50c. Sent post-paid upon receipt of price. 

C. P. FARRELL, Publisher, New York. 




MAN 

IN THE 

PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE: 

A POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 

Results of Recent Scientific Research 

REGARDING THE 

ORIGIN, POSITION AND PROSPECTS OF MANKIND. 

FROM THE GERMAN OF 

Dr. LUDWIG BUCHNER, 

AUTHOR OF "FORCE AND MATTER," "ESSAYS ON NATURE AND SCIENCE," 
"PHYSIOLOGICAL PICTURES," "SIX LECTURES ON DARWIN," ETC. 



"The great mystery of existence consists in perpetual and uninterrupted 
change. Every thing is immortal and indestructible,— the smallest worm as 
well as the most enormous of the celestial bodies,— the sand grain or the water- 
drop as well as the highest being in creation, man and his thoughts. Only the 
forms in which being manifests itself are changing ; but Being itself remains 
eternally the same and imperishable. When we die we do not lose ourselves, 
but only our personal consciousness. We live on in nature, in our race, in our 
children, in our deeds, in our thoughts, — in short, in the entire material and 
psychical contribution which, during our short personal existence, we have fur- 
nished to the subsistence of mankind and of nature in general." — Btichner. 

" Humanity persists and flows on although the individual disappears after a 
short course of life ; but neither his life, nor that of the waterdrop is lost. For 
just as the latter could not complete its circulation without dissolving or super- 
inducing the combinations of other matters, so every man leaves the traces of 
his existence behind him in what he separated or brought into new combinations 
in the contribution to the culture-treasure of humanity, which is furnished by 
every human life, from the least to the greatest."— Radenhausen. 

" Where are the dead ? " asks Schopenhauer and he answers : " They are with 
us ! In spite of death and corruption we are still all together ! " 

Drum streitet, Thoren, ferner nicht, Unsterblich ist der kleinste Wurm, 

Ob Ihr im Geist unsterblich seid ! Unsterblich auch des Menschen Geist, 

Denn keines Todes Macht zerbricht Den jeder neue Todessturm 

Der Dinge Unverganglichkeit, In immer neue Bahnen reisst ! 

Die Alles was da ist und lebt, So lebet Ihr, gestorben auch, 

In einem ew'gen Kreise fiihrt In kiinftigen Geschlechtern fort, 

Und, wo sie zur Vernichtung strebt, Und dieser ewige Gebrauch 

Die Flammen neuen Lebens schiirt ! Verwechselt nichts als Zeit und Ort ! 



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THE • KOB • OF • REASON, By Thomas Paine. 

A new and complete edition, from new plates and new type; 186 pages, post 8vo. 
Paper 25 cts. ; cloth 50 cts. 

COMMON • SENSE. By Thomas Paine. ^^XcL 



CHRISTIKN-PKRKDOXES. byfrancis bacon, xoas. 



New Photographs of 

Col. Robt. G. Ingersoll. 

Just Taken ! 

PERFECT IN POSE! 

HAPPY IN EXPRESSION! 

FAULTLESS IN FINISH! 



THESE Pictures almost speak to you audibly. You 
have only to imagine the musical, sympathetic 
voice, the fine flashing eye, the glowing countenance, 
and the whole animated, pulsating form, to see and 
hear the living man and orator before you. 

All who want to see Col. Ingersoll as he is and 
stands to-day, will get this photo. The panel size, in 
full length portraiture, is particularly suited for framing, 
and is commended to all the Colonel's admirers as the 
one eminently fitted for parlor, library or drawing-room. 

PRICES: 

Panel, - 18x24 in. - $5.00 

Imperial, - 7^ x 13 in. - - 2.00 

Cabinet, - 4 x 6 in. - .35 

Sent to any address, by mail or express, prepaid. 

C. F\ FARRELL, Publisher, 

400 Fifth Avenue, New York. 



25 CENTS. 



About 
The Holy Bible. 



A LECTURE 

BY 

Robert G. Ingbrsoll. 



In the nature of things there can be no evidence to establish 
the claim of inspiration. 



NEW YORK: 

C. P. FARREIJy, publisher. 
1894. 



Prose -poems 

— AND — 

Selections, 

BY 

Robert Q # Jngersoll. 

Third Edition, Revised and Enlarged. 

5l aanAsome Quarto, containing ottct 300 pages. 



THIS is, beyond question, the most elegant volume in Liberal literature. Its 
mechanical finish is worthy of its intrinsic excellence. No expense has been 
spared to make it the thing of beauty it is. The type is large and clear, the 
paper heavy, highly calendered and richly tinted, the press-work faultless, and th< 
binding as perfect as the best materials and skill can make it. The book is in every 
way an artistic triumph. 

As to the contents, it is enough to say that they include some of the choicest 
utterances of the greatest writer on the topics treated that has ever lived. 

Those who have not the good fortune to own all of Mr. Ingersoll's published 
works, will have in this book of selections many bright samples of his lofty thought, 
his matchless eloquence, his wonderful imagery, and his epigrammatic and poetic 
power. The collection includes all of the "Tributes" that have become famous in 
literature — notably those to his brother E. C. Ingersoll, Lincoln, Grant, Beecher and 
Elizur Wright; his peerless monograms on "The Vision of War," Love, Liberty, 
Science, Nature, The Imagination, Decoration Day Oration, and on the great heroes 
of intellectual liberty. Besides these are innumerable gems taken here and there 
from the orations, speeches, arguments, toasts, lectures, letters, and day to day con- 
versations of the author. 

The book is designed for, and will be accepted by, admiring friends as a rare 
persona] souvenir. To help it serve this purpose, a fine steel portrait, with autograph 
fac-simile, has been prepared especially for it. In the more elegant styles of binding 
it is eminently suited for presentation purposes, for any season or occasion. 

PRICES. 

In Cloth, beveled boards, gilt edges, - - $2.50 

In Half Morocco, gilt edges, - 5.00 

In Half Calf, mottled edges, library style, - 4.50 

In Full Turkey Morocco, gilt, exquisitely fine, 7.50 

In Full Tree-Calf, highest possible finish, - - 9.00 
Sent to any address, by express, prepaid, or mail, post free, on receipt of price. 

Address C. F\ FARRELL, Publisher, 



400 Fifth Avenue. New Vork City, 



INGERSOLL'S LECTURES, 

*1N ONE VOLUME.^ 



CONTENTS: 



THE GODS- HUMBOLDT, INDIVIDUALITY, 

THOMAS PAINE, HERETICS AND HERESIES. 

THE GHOSTS. 

THE LIBERTY OF MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD, 

THE CENTENNIAL ORATiON, OR DECLARATION OF 
INDEPENDENCE, July *, 1876. 

WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING 1^ ILLINOIS. 

SPEECH AT CINCINNATI IN 1876, nominating 

James G. Blaine for the Presider 

THE PAST RISES BEFORE ME; OR, VISION OF WAR, 
an extract from a Speech made at the Soldiers and Sailors 
Reunion at Indianapolis, Indiana, Sept. 21, 1876. 

A TRIBUTE TO EBON C. INGERSOLL. 

SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES. 
WHAT MUST WE DO TO BE SAVED? 
SIX INTERVIEWS WITH ROBERT G. INGERSOLL 
ON SIX SERMONS BY THE Rev. T. DEWITT 
TALMAGE, D. D. ; to which is added a 
TALMAGIAN CATECHISM. 

And FOUR PREFACES, which contain some of Mr. Ingersoll's 
wittiest and brightest sayings.. 

This volume contains a fine steel portrait of the author, and 
has had the greatest popularity, is beautifully bound in Half 
Morocco, mottled edges, 1,300 pages, good paper, large type, 
small 8vo. 

Price, post paid, $5.00. 




Tfye Great lipsoll Controversy 

CONTAINING THE 

FAMOUS CHRISTMAS SERMON, 

BY 

Col. R. G. Ingersoll 

THE INDIGNANT PROTF c ^' YOKED FROM MINIS- 

TERS OF AND COLONEL 

^^M^^^^^ S SAME. ' 



^cpondence on the Subject by Special 
. " The Evening Te.leg.ram. ' ' 

Price, paper, Twenty-five cents. 




" SOMETHING BRAND NEW !" 

IngerSOll'S startling, brilliant and thrillingly eloquent let- 
ters, which created such a sensation when published in the 
New, York World, together with the replies of famous clergy- 
men and writers, a verdict from a jury of eminent men of New- 
York, Curious Facts About Suicides, celebrated essays and 
opinions of noted men, and an astonishing and original chapter, 
Great Suicides of History ! Price, heavy paper, with late 
portrait of Col. Ingersoll, 25 cents. 



The American Newsman says : " This is something brand new — 
curious, entertaining, and startling. The letters are among the finest 
products of Colonel Ingersoll's genius * * * Bound to have a 
wide sale." 



Address C. P. FARRELL, 400 Fifth Ave., New York. 



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